They added that these tiny bacteria driven power plants could someday be the engines of small, man-made devices that are self-assembled and self-powered – ranging from optical switches to smartphone components.

Co-author Dr Amin Doostmohammadi, from Oxford University’s Department of Physics, said: "The ability to get even a tiny amount of mechanical work from these biological systems is valuable because they do not need an input power and use internal biochemical processes to move around."

"At micro scales, our simulations show that the flow generated by biological assemblies is capable of reorganising itself in such a way as to generate a persistent mechanical power for rotating an array of microrotors."

Senior author Professor Julia Yeomans, from Oxford University’s Department of Physics, added: "Nature is brilliant at creating tiny engines, and there is enormous potential if we can understand how to exploit similar designs."